William Inge Message Board

Ashley posts on 8/8/2005 7:32:26 PMHi...I'm doing research on the play Bus Stop, and I need some help with the characters. Everytime I seem to get a decent lead it turns out to be junk. So could someone email me with character summaries, it would be much appreciated. Thank You!Alfred Rossi posts on 2/18/2005 11:18:54 PMGenerally thought to be a distant third to Miller and Williams in mid-twentienth century American playwriting, Inge's work in his best plays, COME BACK LITTLE SHEBA, PICNIC, BUS STOP,and DARK AT THE TOP OF THE STAIRS, perceptively capture slices of midwestern American life truly observed and compassionately shared. His film script of " Splendor in the Grass" is the epitome of teen-age sexual angst in an astronimically less liberal time than surrounds us in 2005. All of his work depicts a far simpler,to some degree more innocent,naive, suppressed time in the fabric of twentieth century life in America.
I'm interested reactions/responses from actors, directors, and audience members who have experienced Inge's work in performances, especially BUS STOP. Dez posts on 2/7/2005 4:57:49 PMLike most of William Inge's work I found his characters to have a very outer calm, inner storm feel to them. I guess that's true to life. Most of the people I meet seem very average and then you talk to them for a while and realize they've been through all sorts of stuff.

Arthur R. Aldrich posts on 1/9/2005 8:41:23 PMTragedy masquerades as comedy in William Inge's work, just as Inge hid his homosexuality and emotional illness behind a screen of normalcy, But this tension permeates his work.
What exactly is the relationship between Bo and Virgil? And why is Virgil so uncomfortable with Bo''s affection for Cherie?
Lyman, the drunken professor who chases young girls is a comic figure. But the comedy hides Inge's own conflcits and mirrors his life. Behind the comedy is the realization that the brilliant Lyman does not fit into society and will not conform to its norms.
A comedy? Superficially, yes. But Bus Stop is really a tale of longing and lonliness only partly requited.